Chapter 4: An Explanation

The sound of feet stomping down the stairs wakes Stella up the next morning. All three men enter and close the door behind them. "Did you sleep well last night?" Neither of them answers. "I hope you did because you've got a long day."

"What do you want from us?" Mac asks again.

"I believe you worked a rape case six months ago. The girl was killed, and your team couldn't find the man."

He nods slowly, "Yes, I remember it. The file still sits on my desk."

"The girl was my sister. I want you to reopen the case and solve it. She didn't deserve to die, and her killer needs to be punished. Once it's solved, you'll both go free. And the longer it takes the more torture you go through."

"How are we supposed to do this when we're tied up in here?" Stella asks.

"You two won't be. Taylor, I want you to call your team and tell them to reopen the case. If you breathe a word about your whereabouts, I'll… put some tarantulas in here," he smirks.

Her eyes go wide. Mac doesn't flinch. "Give me a phone, and I'll call." The leader unties him and hands him one.

He dials Danny's number. "Danny, we need you to reopen the rape-murder case from six months ago. The file is still on my desk. I want everyone working on it, and no one leaves until it's solved."

"What's wrong? Where are you? And Stella is gone too," Danny asks.

"We're both safe for now. I have no idea where we are. Just work quickly and find the killer; Stella and I will be fine if you follow my orders."

The man takes the phone and ends the call. "That's enough. If it's not finished in three hours, someone will get hurt."

"Three hours? It takes a lot longer than that to run any evidence again for a lead," Stella argues.

"It should have been solved six months ago." The men leave the basement.

She looks towards her partner. "What's wrong? Other than the fact that it won't be solved in three hours?"

He looks at his hands. "They forgot to tie me back up."

"Untie me, and let's find a way out of here."

"They only way out is through that door. We won't get past them. Plus they probably have some other trap in case we somehow managed to get untied."

"So we're just going to sit and wait for them to hurt us when the team hasn't found the killer yet? That's not the Mac I know."

He looks at her, "Maybe I've changed." She refuses to look at him, making him feel guilty. He moves behind her and unties the ropes binding her to the chair.

Stella immediately goes to the door. "Locked," she grumbles in frustration.

"Move over there," he points to a corner. Confused, she listens to him, watching as he kicks the door with all his force. The lock gives way. They both stand still, listening for footsteps coming to see what happened. The house is silent. Mac motions for her to follow him, and they silently creep up the stairs.

At the top they pause again, but still hear nothing. The couple inches through the kitchen and living room, the front door now in sight. He counts down on his fingers, and just as he reaches one and they prepare to dash to the door, a figure steps between them and freedom, a white-hot knife in hand.

"Where do you think you're going?"

A/N: So sorry I didn't update sooner. It kind of slipped my mind yesterday. I was busy cleaning out folders now that school is almost over. Just the Spanish final tomorrow morning. One hour and forty minutes in counting. Of course I'll still be at school. Not my school, my brothers'. I'm helping my fifth grade science teacher, who both my brothers also had, pack his abundance of stuff so it can go upstairs for next year. He's moving to sixth grade. My god I never knew someone could be so messy. And we might be helping his daughter, who I also had. She's moving to fifth grade. But she's a lot neater than he is so that won't take nearly as long. So I checked my grades yesterday to see if the chemistry teacher updated anything. She's a really slow grader. Well, my grade had dropped from like ninety-five to eighty-nine. So I looked to see why. Apparently I was missing the essay part from some test we took a month ago. And I was pretty sure I took that part and turned it in since the multiple choice part had a grade. I emailed her, and she said she had lots of no names. Can't really blame the people for forgetting to put their names when there isn't a line for it on the top of the paper. So she put a grade in there and said she thinks she found, but I'll go check before the spanish test tomorrow. Okay, I need to go. I guess I'll update Thursday. Unless I have lots of reviews when I check tomorrow. Thanks.